Go Nuts: They're Actually Good For The Heart

FOOD PHARMACY

When Gary E. Fraser of Loma Linda University in California, looked at the diets of Seventh-Day Adventists least prone to heart disease, he was surprised. One food stood out as protective: nuts.

Of the 31,208 people in his new study, those who ate nuts more than five times a week had about half as many non-fatal heart attacks and 40 percent fewer heart-disease deaths, compared with those eating nuts less than once a week. Further, the heart disease risk dropped about 25 percent in one-to-four-times a-week nut eaters.

What kind of nuts did they eat? About 32 percent were peanuts, 29 percent almonds, 16 percent walnuts and 23 percent other nuts.

How could nuts work? Fraser and others suggest several ways: Nuts are very low in saturated fat that is bad for the heart and high in monounsaturated fat that protects the heart. Almonds are known to lower cholesterol. Nuts are high in fiber. Further, nuts are often rich in antioxidants like vitamin E and selenium that appear to protect arteries from damage. ''Nuts are quite unique among natural foods,'' says Fraser.

Caffeine crisis

If you are a regular caffeine user and then give it up, you may not know what hit you. It's called ''caffeine withdrawal syndrome'' - headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, sometimes anxiety and nausea. Previously, it was considered a trivial event. Now, writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry, experts argue that ''caffeine withdrawal'' can be extremely serious and should be officially declared a form of mental disorder.

Psychiatrists at the University of Vermont who examined numerous studies on caffeine withdrawal, point out that some people, abruptly deprived of caffeine, cannot function normally and may be temporarily ''incapacitated.'' Some called their headaches ''as severe as'' they had ever had. Others had ''flulike symptoms.''

The symptoms start about 12 to 24 hours after you stop caffeine, peak at 20 to 48 hours and usually last about a week, said the psychiatrists. Heavy caffeine users (five to six cups a day) were most apt to suffer; from 82 percent to 100 percent had symptoms, studies showed.

That does not mean you should not give up caffeine. The point is: Expect and recognize the symptoms for what they are and know that they are temporary.

Alzheimer's and vitamins

Is it possible that certain vitamins might help slow the progression of dementia caused by a series of small strokes or Alzheimer's disease? Perhaps, according to a new study at Central Middlesex Hospital in London.

Researchers measured blood levels of vitamin E, vitamin A and other vegetable constituents in 20 demented patients and 20 healthy elderly people. The demented patients had significantly lower blood levels of vitamin E and beta carotene (vegetable vitamin A) than the normal elderly. The Alzheimer's patients also had less vitamin A.

One theory is that Alzheimer's and other age-related dementia are linked to the increased activity of so-called oxygen free radicals that damage nerve cells. Studies have shown that Alzheimer's patients exhibit signs of increased free-radical activity.

If so, antioxidant chemicals like beta carotene and vitamin E could help combat the free radicals. A lack of these vitamins might ''accelerate degenerative processes in the brain and thus exacerbate dementia,'' say the researchers. They favor tests to see if such vitamins can retard the progression of dementia.